Gaiseric

Gaiseric (400-25 January 477) was King of the Vandals and Alans from 428 to 477, succeeding Gunderic and preceding Huneric. Over the course of almost 50 years of rule, Gaiseric created the Vandalic Kingdom, a major Mediterranean power based from North Africa.

Biography
Gaiseric was born in 400, the son of Godigisel. He succeeded his brother Gunderic as King of the Vandals in 428 AD, ruling over Baetica in Roman Hispania (now Andalusia, Spain). That same year, he defeated a Suebic invasion at Merida and transported his 80,000 people to North Africa after the rebellious Roman governor Bonifacius invited the Vandals to resettle in his lands in order to help him fight back against the Western Roman Empire. His army devastated southern Spain as it moved into North Africa, and Gaiseric turned on Bonifacius in 430 and crushed both the Western and Eastern Roman armies sent to reconquer North Africa from the Vandal newcomers. In 435, Gaiseric concluded a treaty with Rome which made the Vandals foederati in Mauretania, but, in October 439, Gaiseric conquered Carthage, launched a failed invasion of Sicily at Palermo in 440, and forced the Romans to make peace in 442. In 456, he invaded Agrigento, but he was defeated off Corsica by Ricimer. In 455, he seized the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Corsica, and Malta, and, from 468 to 476, the Vandals even ruled over Sicily before ceding it to Odoacer. Also in 455, the Vandals sacked Rome itself, and Gaiseric defeated Roman reconquest attempts at Cartagena in 461 and Cape Bon in 468. He died in Carthage in 477, and he was succeeded by his son Huneric.